Just recently moved to Japan and since there’s a 7/11 a few minutes away from my home I thought why not have a Nanaco-card created. Do you guys own point cards? Just curious. Also, is there a “best point card”?
I have about 2cm thick of point cards from everywhere.
There’s no single best point card – most of them are much of a muchness but each one has some places that only accept that one. None of them are spectacularly good either. Thankfully most of the common ones are getting to be available in digital form – my Ponta, Rakuten, D, T, JRE and Summit point cards are all just on my phone, and those are the ones I use most commonly.
No. I hate carrying cards and literally carry my ID, 1 credit card, and 1 debit card.
Too many. I mostly collect Rakuten points.
The 7-11 app doesn’t really give you points, but you can get coupons (and they can use your spending data).
Rakuten: main point card, I have a Rakuten bank account as well so I get points through there.
Ponta: Lawson is my closest convenience store and I also use hot pepper beauty a lot.
T-Point: used to use this at the local drug store before I moved, basically don’t use it now but uploaded it to my Google wallet anyway.
D-point: some of the places that used Rakuten switched to D-point so I should really get it set back up on my phone but I’m too lazy.
Cocokara Fine: nearest drug store, shop here a lot and their app has good coupons.
Waon points: nearest grocery store and I also have their credit card so I rack up a fair amount of points.
Yamada Denki: we bought all our appliances there when we built our house so I ended up getting enough points to almost pay for our washing machine. Just left the app on my phone because reinstalling it is a pain.
Uniqlo: I don’t remember if they do points but they do members discounts.
These are the ones that are either in my wallet or on my phone, I have a shit ton of others that I’ve collected over the years but they’re usually not worth bothering with.
Rakuten Points: for money off hotels on Rakuten Travel
D-Points: Nets me a few yen off gasoline from collecting them at all the places that don’t do Rakuten
Yellow Hat point card : the points I get for doing my shaken through them means I basically get free screenwash and other misc. bits and bobs in between mandatory inspections.
Mainekineko app.
I got a fuck ton of stamp cards though
I have enough points to buy a PS5. It’s free money. I don’t care if Docomo knows my spending habits.
An unexpected thing I discovered is that a lot of point card companies take themselves very seriously (almost like they are banks), and you might see that if you would ever be in the process of resetting a password, closing an account, or reporting a lost card. Basically, even if feels like a you are doing too much, save all the login info and full card numbers. I was in a situation where I lost my access to an old phone number and that literally made my old Dpoint account unretrievable if locked from too many login attempts. My Tpoint card was retrievable in the same scenario, but it still took more time than expected. Other than that I would say that their perks justify installing the apps. Another category of apps that I did not expect to be as useful as they are are the official konbini apps. They regularly give you coupons for free or half-discounted drinks, cheaper cofee, and desserts. For me, I rarely drink soda, and konbini apps + CokeOn almost fully cover the few moments when I crave those.
Local supermarket one(s): We have two of them; one gives cash back once in a while; the other gives extra money in the prepaid card at times.
Yodobashi Camera one: Useful. We usually end up saving a few hundred yen from shipping or our purchases. The last time we went to a physical store (to buy a trackball), we ended up not having to use cash because we had enough points.
Odakyu: We live in Odakyu country, and many shops in the neighborhood give Odakyu points. My spouse had that one; I’m not sure what it’s useful for.
I’d recommend having a point card regardless whether you use it or not, especially from yodobashi or bigcamera etc.
Case in point: wanted to buy switch but there was a shortage. Only bigcamera had it in stock but limited to members. Dusted off the point card and got my switch.
I’m getting most points in楽天ポイント bonus if you have a rakuten credit card(s) + rakuten Mobile contract. around 7000 points earned this month from a campaign+ credit card usage. can’t complain
The best point card would depend on the services you use and stores you visit most often. For me the best ones are d-point, T-point, JRE, and Rakuten.
I have several–T Point, Waon, Ponta, plus a bunch for specific stores/brands. I don’t always remember to use them at checkout, but I use them often enough to get the occasional discount or free product.
Nice to have, but you’re probably not missing out on any huge savings if you just can’t be bothered.
For my first 6 months I had to pay for everything with cash, *or* as I discovered I could use a Waon card, so I did. It also has a points card element.
Rakuten points for life.
I have cards/apps for a few other places. The sushi/ramen/yakiniku places my family prefers, Book/Hard-Off, the Coke one (a must have, you can get free drinks just for walking and discounts quite randomly), and Bic Camera. Bic Camera is a great one because I can get points from the Bic Camera point card and my Rakuten credit card at the same time, which stacks into a very significant discount (usually at least 3%, sometimes as much as 16% if I get lucky.)
Anyway yesポイ活is fantastic. It can really help you stretch your yen, at the cost of some retailers knowing your buying habits (again, my main source of points is my credit card and they’re gonna know anyway lol)
You get basically nothing out of it and gives the stores an easy way to do data mining on your shopping patterns
Point cards in Japan used to be worthwhile, giving 1% or sometimes even 2% points. These days almost all of them have cut *way* back and give 0.5% at best. It’s not worth allowing all your purchases to be tracked to get a measly 0.5% in return.
The only one I use is the one at my grocery store which also works at the nearest department store and a few other places. It’s effectively about 1% cash back at the grocery store and 0.5% everywhere else.
That one I use most days, but I don’t really spend enough money consistently at other stores and chains to bother signing up and carrying around the cards.
Mostly Rakuten point card that I can use to rack up points for discounts on hotels when booking through Rakuten travel.
no, the time i save not signing up for loads of point cards and fiddling with their apps/physical cards is worth more to me than the few bucks i save by using them
few exceptions with large, recurring expenses like docomo.
For me I mainly do the credit card game instead in this order:
Is it a flight? > US-issued Amex Platinum for 5x MR
Is it a supermarket of some sort? > Capital One SavorOne for 3% cash back
Is it a hotel or some other purchase that accepts a U.S. credit card? > Hilton Honors Amex
Does it require a Japanese credit card? > SMBC Amazon Prime Mastercard
Requires eMoney? > Probably just use Mobile Suica/PASMO (I use physical PASMO for commute because of my commuter pass) but looking into maybe adding mobile Nanaco or WAON
Edit: oh and I have Rakuten Mobile so I earn Rakuten points
Too many to count. If it’s a shop I go to then I have the card if it’s free. Why not. Luckily, these days most places have digital cards I can retrieve from apps
*Not point cards in the classic sense. Electric cash with some benefits.
Got a billion others but gave up on keeping up with them. Bookstores, electronic stores. For bigger purchases I just let my wife get the points on hers because she is more into the game.
24 comments
I have about 2cm thick of point cards from everywhere.
There’s no single best point card – most of them are much of a muchness but each one has some places that only accept that one. None of them are spectacularly good either. Thankfully most of the common ones are getting to be available in digital form – my Ponta, Rakuten, D, T, JRE and Summit point cards are all just on my phone, and those are the ones I use most commonly.
No. I hate carrying cards and literally carry my ID, 1 credit card, and 1 debit card.
Too many.
I mostly collect Rakuten points.
The 7-11 app doesn’t really give you points, but you can get coupons (and they can use your spending data).
Rakuten: main point card, I have a Rakuten bank account as well so I get points through there.
Ponta: Lawson is my closest convenience store and I also use hot pepper beauty a lot.
T-Point: used to use this at the local drug store before I moved, basically don’t use it now but uploaded it to my Google wallet anyway.
D-point: some of the places that used Rakuten switched to D-point so I should really get it set back up on my phone but I’m too lazy.
Cocokara Fine: nearest drug store, shop here a lot and their app has good coupons.
Waon points: nearest grocery store and I also have their credit card so I rack up a fair amount of points.
Yamada Denki: we bought all our appliances there when we built our house so I ended up getting enough points to almost pay for our washing machine. Just left the app on my phone because reinstalling it is a pain.
Uniqlo: I don’t remember if they do points but they do members discounts.
These are the ones that are either in my wallet or on my phone, I have a shit ton of others that I’ve collected over the years but they’re usually not worth bothering with.
Rakuten Points: for money off hotels on Rakuten Travel
D-Points: Nets me a few yen off gasoline from collecting them at all the places that don’t do Rakuten
Yellow Hat point card : the points I get for doing my shaken through them means I basically get free screenwash and other misc. bits and bobs in between mandatory inspections.
Mainekineko app.
I got a fuck ton of stamp cards though
I have enough points to buy a PS5. It’s free money. I don’t care if Docomo knows my spending habits.
An unexpected thing I discovered is that a lot of point card companies take themselves very seriously (almost like they are banks), and you might see that if you would ever be in the process of resetting a password, closing an account, or reporting a lost card. Basically, even if feels like a you are doing too much, save all the login info and full card numbers. I was in a situation where I lost my access to an old phone number and that literally made my old Dpoint account unretrievable if locked from too many login attempts. My Tpoint card was retrievable in the same scenario, but it still took more time than expected. Other than that I would say that their perks justify installing the apps.
Another category of apps that I did not expect to be as useful as they are are the official konbini apps. They regularly give you coupons for free or half-discounted drinks, cheaper cofee, and desserts. For me, I rarely drink soda, and konbini apps + CokeOn almost fully cover the few moments when I crave those.
Local supermarket one(s): We have two of them; one gives cash back once in a while; the other gives extra money in the prepaid card at times.
Yodobashi Camera one: Useful. We usually end up saving a few hundred yen from shipping or our purchases. The last time we went to a physical store (to buy a trackball), we ended up not having to use cash because we had enough points.
Odakyu: We live in Odakyu country, and many shops in the neighborhood give Odakyu points. My spouse had that one; I’m not sure what it’s useful for.
I’d recommend having a point card regardless whether you use it or not, especially from yodobashi or bigcamera etc.
Case in point: wanted to buy switch but there was a shortage. Only bigcamera had it in stock but limited to members. Dusted off the point card and got my switch.
I’m getting most points in楽天ポイント
bonus if you have a rakuten credit card(s) + rakuten Mobile contract. around 7000 points earned this month from a campaign+ credit card usage. can’t complain
The best point card would depend on the services you use and stores you visit most often. For me the best ones are d-point, T-point, JRE, and Rakuten.
I have several–T Point, Waon, Ponta, plus a bunch for specific stores/brands. I don’t always remember to use them at checkout, but I use them often enough to get the occasional discount or free product.
Nice to have, but you’re probably not missing out on any huge savings if you just can’t be bothered.
For my first 6 months I had to pay for everything with cash, *or* as I discovered I could use a Waon card, so I did. It also has a points card element.
Rakuten points for life.
I have cards/apps for a few other places. The sushi/ramen/yakiniku places my family prefers, Book/Hard-Off, the Coke one (a must have, you can get free drinks just for walking and discounts quite randomly), and Bic Camera. Bic Camera is a great one because I can get points from the Bic Camera point card and my Rakuten credit card at the same time, which stacks into a very significant discount (usually at least 3%, sometimes as much as 16% if I get lucky.)
Anyway yesポイ活is fantastic. It can really help you stretch your yen, at the cost of some retailers knowing your buying habits (again, my main source of points is my credit card and they’re gonna know anyway lol)
You get basically nothing out of it and gives the stores an easy way to do data mining on your shopping patterns
Point cards in Japan used to be worthwhile, giving 1% or sometimes even 2% points. These days almost all of them have cut *way* back and give 0.5% at best. It’s not worth allowing all your purchases to be tracked to get a measly 0.5% in return.
The only one I use is the one at my grocery store which also works at the nearest department store and a few other places. It’s effectively about 1% cash back at the grocery store and 0.5% everywhere else.
That one I use most days, but I don’t really spend enough money consistently at other stores and chains to bother signing up and carrying around the cards.
Mostly Rakuten point card that I can use to rack up points for discounts on hotels when booking through Rakuten travel.
no, the time i save not signing up for loads of point cards and fiddling with their apps/physical cards is worth more to me than the few bucks i save by using them
few exceptions with large, recurring expenses like docomo.
For me I mainly do the credit card game instead in this order:
Is it a flight? > US-issued Amex Platinum for 5x MR
Is it a supermarket of some sort? > Capital One SavorOne for 3% cash back
Is it a hotel or some other purchase that accepts a U.S. credit card? > Hilton Honors Amex
Does it require a Japanese credit card? > SMBC Amazon Prime Mastercard
Requires eMoney? > Probably just use Mobile Suica/PASMO (I use physical PASMO for commute because of my commuter pass) but looking into maybe adding mobile Nanaco or WAON
Edit: oh and I have Rakuten Mobile so I earn Rakuten points
Too many to count. If it’s a shop I go to then I have the card if it’s free. Why not. Luckily, these days most places have digital cards I can retrieve from apps
My wife has a George Costanza wallet full of them
Cards I actually use:
– Rakuten
– Nanaco
– Waon
– Kaldi*
– Starbucks*
*Not point cards in the classic sense. Electric cash with some benefits.
Got a billion others but gave up on keeping up with them. Bookstores, electronic stores. For bigger purchases I just let my wife get the points on hers because she is more into the game.